Girls' basketball: Rams succumb to Jo-burg in regional semifinal

The Rams withstood a frantic fourth-quarter Charlevoix comeback attempt triggered by a tenacious fullcourt press in winning their Class C district championship game last Friday.

In that game, that Rams' one-time 11-point lead eventually dwindled to two before they held on for the win.

On Tuesday in a regional semifinal against Johannesburg-Lewiston at Kalkaska High School, the Ram lead was a precarious five points.

It wasn't enough.

Jo-burg's press took its toll in the second half as the Cardinals mounted an 18-2 spurt in downing the Rams, 60-47, ending Harbor's season at 13-11.

Jo-burg, 19-4, will play Kalkaska, 22-1, 7 p.m. Thursday, March 10, for the regional crown. Kalkaska advanced with an 82-75 overtime win over Leroy Pine River in Tuesday's other semifinal.

The Cardinals' press came as no surprise to first-year Harbor coach Jennifer Foley, and her team did an admirable job of handling it for most of three quarters.

Then, the roof caved in.

"The scouting reports I got said the biggest thing was their press," Foley said, "and that's exactly what they did and it wore us down in the fourth quarter. We had some untimely turnovers and unfortunately we couldn't quite climb out of that hole.

"I'm glad we stuck with them for three quarters because their pressure was great and, again, it did kind of wear us down in the fourth."

Sophomore Abby Schlicher scored 16 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, dished out eight assists, and made four steals to lead the Cardinals, while Ashley Sides and Miranda House added 10 points apiece.

The Cardinals were playing in their fourth consecutive regional. They won three consecutive Class D regional championships -- and went to the state semifinals in 2008-09 -- before moving up to Class C this season.

And while the vast majority of the key players on those three squads are gone to graduation, the Cardinals showed plenty of poise and moxie in rallying from a 39-34 third-quarter deficit to seize the game.

"The girls that were on the floor (tonight), a couple of them had some playing time last year in the quarterfinals, but they didn't have a ton of experience that way, but they were there," Jo-burg coach Heather Huff said. "They were experiencing it. They kind of had the feel of it. ... They stepped up (tonight)."

The Rams, playing in their first regional since 2003, didn't appear fazed by the pressure and bright lights of the regional, building a 39-34 lead -- at five points, their largest of the night -- with under a minute left in the third quarter.

Sides scored on a putback with 51.7 seconds left in the third to pull Jo-burg within three, 39-36, touching off an 18-2 run during which the Cardinals made nine of their 13 field goal attempts.

The Cardinals simply turned it up a notch on the fullcourt pressure they had employed throughout the entire game. Harbor committed 25 turnovers in the game, not an unusually high number against a pressing team like Jo-burg, but a third of those came during the decisive stretch that began with Sides' bucket with under a minute left in the third.

"I could see the girls start to have smiles on their faces, like 'Oh yeah, here we go,'" Huff said. "You just read the girls because you know them and you could see their confidence, and in their heads, they knew it was going to happen. ... They kind of ate them up on defense"

Schlicher scored on a steal-and-layup 13 seconds into the fourth quarter to pull Jo-burg within one, 39-38. As Harbor attempted to work the ball upcourt, Jo-burg made a steal and House converted to put Jo-burg in front for good, 40-39.

With momentum clearly in Jo-burg's favor and the Rams on their heels, the Cardinals pounced. Five different Cardinals scored the next six field goals, sandwiched around a pair of Ongaro free throws.

When the dust settled with 4 minutes, 20 seconds remaining, the Cardinals were in control, 52-41, and the Rams had gone nearly five minutes without a field goal.

Harbor managed to get back within six, 52-46, with under three minutes remaining, but the Cardinals put it out of reach with an 8-1 game-closing run.

Schlicher scored 12 of her game-high 16 points in the second half, finally breaking free from a solid defensive effort by an ill Ford, one of six Harbor seniors.

"The way (Ford) kept it together tonight being as sick as she is was just great," Foley said. "Her job, to guard (Schlicher), was huge. She's a heck of a player."

"I'm proud of the way we competed," Foley said. "Haley Kloss, being the athlete that she is, 14 points and 10 rebounds, is something she does often and in big games. She just rises to the occasion and it was an unbelievable effort by her."